Kathi is our resident renaissance woman, tackling educational and policy programs for district, state, and national projects as AnLar’s Director of Technical Assistance. She is a skilled facilitator, trainer, and technical assistance (TA) provider, and has expertise in early intervention and early childhood special education, long-term systems change, state early childhood systems, and data management systems. She is particularly skilled in helping large groups of people (such as stakeholder groups and councils) get along, establish common goals, and get things done. Kathi also leads the advancement and development of AnLar’s early childhood portfolio, which will provide direct TA to districts and states.
Before joining the AnLar team, Kathi spent 6 years as a technical assistant specialist for two national early childhood TA centers based out of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute in Chapel Hill, North Carolina – the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center and the Center for Early Childhood IDEA Data Systems (DaSy). Through these projects, she assisted state early intervention and early childhood special education programs implement the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, improve their data systems and the quality and use of their IDEA data, and select and use evidence-based practices for children and families. Kathi also led the planning and coordination of TA for the DaSy project, including all the individualized and cross-state TA activities offered by the project. This was the second time Kathi worked at FPG; a long time ago, she spent 5 years as a research assistant on the Abecedarian Project, which studied the long-term effects of early intervention on children and families. In the years in between jobs at FPG, Kathi earned her Master’s Degree in Early Intervention and Family Support and obtained a North Carolina Birth–Kindergarten teaching license. She spent 15 years teaching infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities and their families through Community Partnerships, Inc. (CPI), a progressive non-profit that served individuals with disabilities “womb to tomb” in inclusive, community-based settings. In addition to providing services, Kathi worked as the coordinator and manager of the early intervention program and served as Director of Childhood Services for the agency–a role in which she was responsible for developing and sustaining all of CPI’s services for children.
Kathi lives in Falls Church VA with her husband and four children. When she’s not working, she is pretending to be a Broadway star, indoctrinating her children into the worlds of Star Wars and Star Trek, trying on the many shoes in her closet, and making to-do lists of things she has already done just so she can check them off.
